Ludovico Carracci

Willem Isaack Hooft (L.2631);
sale, London, Sotheby's, 21 November 1974, lot 44, purchased by Ralph Holland

London, 1975, no. 25;
Newcastle, 1982, no. 25, reproduced pl. XII B

G. Feigenbaum, Lodovico Carracci: A study of his later Career and a Catalogue of his Paintings, Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1984, no. 101;
B. Bohn, Lodovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing, Turnhout 2004, p. 293, no. 151, reproduced fig. 151a

Laid down and hinged in few places to a modern mount. The surface of the drawing has suffered overall but it is more damaged and rubbed around the margins. Some oxidazation of the white heightening. Overall the image is still quite strong.
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This is a finished modello with some differences for Ludovico's signed and dated altarpiece of 1601, in the church of Corpus Domini, Bologna (fig. 1).  The painting was commissioned by the Landini family and originally hung to the left of the main portal, on the entrance wall, over their altar.  The two compositions are very close, but in the final painting Ludovico made a number of changes in the architectural setting in the background, and inserted a Roman classical fragment in the left foreground.  He also eliminated the heads of two Apostles behind the figure of St. Andrew, to the right.  According to Babette Bohn (loc. cit.), at this period Ludovico focussed more on compositional studies, such as the present one, in preparation for his paintings, and much less on anatomical or life studies.  This results in a less accurate naturalism and his forms become more erratic but also much more individual.  She mentions that at Windsor there is a copy possibly after the lower part of the present drawing¹, and a drawn copy after the painting is in the Galleria di Palazzo Rosso, Genoa.²

The attribution to Ludovico was confirmed to Ralph Holland twice by the late Sir Denis Mahon, first on 30 November 1974 and again in January 1975.  Mr. Holland wrote in his notes on the drawing: 'Denis Mahon in conversation said the drawing is 'pure' Lodovico.'

 

1.  Inv. no. 3569; R. Wittkower, The Drawings of the Carracci...at Windsor Castle, London 1952, p. 109, no. 83
2.  Inv. no. 1943; B. Bohn, op. cit., p. 293